Cinnamon buns take on sweet and savory dimensions

Move over Cinnabon — Smackadoodles has its eye on becoming the next big thing in cinnamon buns.

And the Taunton-based Smackadoodles also offers savory versions of the classic filled, rolled bun.

Smackadoodles, which will be for sale at Bristol Community College this Saturday at the SkillUSA Cake Show, is a cinnamon roll business created, owned and run by husband and wife team Michael and Melody West.

They currently offer the original cinnamon bun, a cream cheese frosting-topped treat that remains their most popular item, along with 23 other sweet concoctions including caramel apple pie, cherry cheesecake, Oreo truffle, lemon and salted caramel chocolate.

On the savory side, the selection includes linguica burger, a combo of linguica and ground beef with cheese; buffalo chicken; pepperoni pizza; chili and cheese, topped with Fritos corn chips; tomato feta; and Halami, with ham, salami, provolone and Swiss cheese.

“Melanie actually comes up with some of the ideas for them in her sleep,” said Michael West.

Melanie, a stay-at-home mom who also homeschools the couple’s five children, cooks the Smackadoodles buns at 4 a.m. at the commercial kitchen at the Dartmouth Grange. The company is actually named after a nickname for one of their kids.

And Michael manages the businesses side of the growing company. “We hope to be in a retail location by next year,” he said, adding, “Our goal is to take this and make it as big as it can be.”

Neither one of them has a background in food or had any plans of starting a food-based company — that is, until Melanie made some of the cinnamon buns for Mike to take to a potluck gathering at work in 2011. “Everyone loved them and told us we should start selling them,” he said.

After some trial and error over the first year, and learning about the rules and regulations of operating a food business, the couple began selling them last summer at area farmers’ markets. This summer they plan to expand to six farmers’ markets.

Right now, they sell them at The Marketplace at Simpson Spring in Easton on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., through the company’s Facebook page, and at special events such as the cake show at BCC this Saturday.

After so many requests from customers to have them shipped across the country, they also recently started baking them in mason jars, which keeps them fresh and easy to ship.

“We started shipping them to friends in California and Phoenix and everybody started raving about them,” said Michael West. “Now we have a product that we can ship.”

The mason jar versions have also caught on with their local customers, who order the unique baked treats for bridal shower favors and other types of parties.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/smackadoodles or stop by their booth at the Cake Show at BCC on Saturday, April 5. The SkillsUSA Cake Show fundraiser will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Commonwealth College Center at the BCC Fall River Campus, 777 Elsbree St. Entrance fee at the door is $10 for age 10 and up; children are admitted free.